APPAM Institutional Member Update - March 2019

NASPAA and APPAM Offering Joint Sessions and Events During Fall Conferences in November

August 14, 2014 09:00 AM

This year, NASPAA and APPAM will be co-located together in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The annual NASPAA conference overlaps with APPAM’s Fall Research Conference on November 5 and 6; both associations are offering joint sessions and events during those days and welcome attendees from both conferences.

“APPAM is excited to offer this opportunity for our conference attendees this year,” says APPAM Executive Director Tara Sheehan. “The topics we’ve selected with NASPAA are sure to provoke quality discussion and insight into today’s public policy and administration fields. We’re looking forward to the discourse and networking with our peers at NASPAA.”

On Wednesday, November 5, the APPAM/NASPAA Joint Plenary will feature Jeff Bingaman, former U.S. Senator for New Mexico and current professor of law at Stanford University. Bingaman served in the U.S. Senate from 1982 to 2013 and was Chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee from 2001-02 and from 2007-13. He was instrumental in the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Prior to his 31 years in Congress, Bingaman was elected as New Mexico’s Attorney General.

After the plenary, attendees from both conferences will be welcomed at a joint reception, located at the nearby Albuquerque Balloon Museum. The museum features several exhibits on the history of air ballooning and guests can enjoy expansive views of the Sandia Mountains from tethered hot air balloon rides.

Early morning attendees are welcome to join NASPAA and APPAM at a joint continental breakfast on Thursday morning between 7:30 and 8:30 am. The breakfast will be located in the Grand Pavilion VI within the Hyatt Regency Albuquerque and is sponsored by the University of Michigan.

A series of joint sessions are planned for Thursday, November 6:

Fiftieth Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Its Legacy in Public Affairs Education

Panel presenters will examine the legacy of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in public administration education, curriculum, and pedagogy. The panel will address the rich history of this legislation in American public administration and discuss the impact of the Act on today's public affairs education.

The Market for Master's and Doctoral Students in Public Policy/ Administration/ Affairs: What Skills Are in Demand, and How Well Are We Preparing Students for the Market of the Future?

Presenters in this panel will address demand and supply side issues in the job market for master’s and doctoral students within public policy/affairs programs. Some of the questions addressed include: Is the market for our students growing? Is supply keeping up with (or outpacing) demand? What skills are in demand in various sectors—public, academia/research and private—and who do our students compete with for these jobs? What are the most valued features and possible weaknesses of these degree programs? How are these programs developing or innovating to meet changes in the labor market?

Capitalizing the “P” in Public Service Education: Defining a New Framework for Linking Our Schools & Research to the Policymaking Process

10:15 – 11:45 am

Moderator: Neil Kleiman, New York UniversitySpeakers: Angela Evans and Jenny Knowles Morrison, University of Texas, Austin; David Birdsell, Baruch College; Salin Geevarghese, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Panelists will present a new framework linking academic and policymaking communities. Ambitious new projects with the White House, the National Science Foundation, and local officials are demonstrating ways that schools of public administration are overcoming cynicism and positively influencing policy across the country. Presenters will review successful attempts at placing institutions at the center of policymaking discussions and decisions, identify opportunities and challenges that exist within the research-academic-policy nexus, examine how policy engagements lead to significant benefit for the home institution, and recognize ways that schools can collaborate in existing networks.

The Evolving Relationship Between Political Science and Public Administration

At this roundtable, panelists will explore the evolving relationship between political science and public administration. It is a particularly opportune time to discuss this relationship for several reasons: many scholars and policymakers around the world worry about the lack of citizen engagement in public policy and public services; the proliferation of nonprofit organizations offering public services has directly raised important concerns about democracy and citizen participation; many of the emergent performance management regimes for public and nonprofit agencies have relatively narrow performance targets; and governments around the world face threats to their legitimacy and effectiveness due to declining public trust and support.

Speakers at this roundtable will re-examine how policy analysis has morphed from its roots and considers implications of the shifts in the field of policy analysis for policy analysis instruction. Topics to be covered include the blurring boundaries of policy analysis versus social sciences research and evaluation; new expectations about accountability and transparency, economic, and fiscal problems, and increased ideological and political conflicts and the impact on pedagogy; and the locus of the policy analyst which has shifted to various agencies while missing the requirement for analytic skills.